I’ve seen a couple articles about an android tv alternative and it’s got me thinking about a streaming box again. A while back i gave kodi a try and didn’t care for the experience. Granted, it was on a pi so expectations were low but it missed the mark for me. This time around i’ve got a modest nuc with proxmox i was thinking of moving to the living room and standing up a fresh vm of kodi to stream to.
I could just access the files over the network but i’m already running both plex and jellyfin so why not use either for my watch history. All that being said is kodi still my best bet?
Why proxmox? At some point down the road i’d like to get a capture card in the mix to stream games and that feels like the most flexible way to do everything.
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I wanted to get rid of my chromecast, so I initially planned on reusing an old minipc I had, tried installing SteamOS on it but failed miserably.
Then I went with Opensuse Aeon, instaled Kodi but I really don’t like the interface, so I am using the Jellyfin client, the SteamApp, and Firefox with my usual adblock setup. All via flatpaks.
This setup autoupdates, so it is cool to have it up 24/7 and just turn on the tv. I can control it via my dualshock, but it is more usable with a 2.4Ghz remote control w/keyboard I got for less than 20€
Sound goes via hdmi to the tv, and from there to my soundbar via ARC, so no sound directly to the pc.
Next, I may setup the Jellyfin server on this machine, so I can leverage its hardware for transcoding (better specs that the nat)
I’m looking forward to Tue next release of KDE big screen:
https://www.webpronews.com/kde-revives-plasma-bigscreen-as-android-tv-rival/
The Nvidia Shield is still the best option for this. I’ve tried all kinds of homebrew solutions and always had headaches. In the two years I’ve had my Shield, I’ve never had a problem. Smart Tube Next lets me cast YouTube without ads, Kodi/Jellyfin gives me all my media library, plus I’ve got official apps for Nebula, Dropout and Spotify. Custom launcher removes what little amount of ads there were (and that was unobtrusive background banner stuff even at its worst). Plus the pro version can handle some pretty powerful emulators.
This but also flash Lineageos 😉
i got ratioed for my love for kodi 😅😭
I use an amazon fire tv stick. It supports more than any other streaming device, afaik. You can sideload custom apps. It’s just there to open jellyfin and ARTE for 50 bucks.
Maybe I’ll buy the next gen shield but buying the 2019 version in 2025 is a bit dated and too expemsive tbo
The shield TV, especially because it’s made for game streaming. It’s the best option, has been for many years.
I’ve got two now, one of the previous generation and one of the current. They just cannot be beat.
I realize most will say kodi or android TV, but I have to say that Apple TV with Infuse (or Jellyfin) is really simple and reliable. I say that with the assumption that you mean a client, not the server. I would definitely put it on a NAS at minimum.
The jellyfin app sucks major balls on appletv at the moment And infuse is not free
like most things apple when it works it’s the best user experience out there, but if you have the slightest little issue good fucking luck.
I can’t speak to infuse (because I’m self hosting to get away from subscriptions) but Jellyfin is extremely picky about file formats on appletv, I found myself using VLC more and more often until my Pihole sd card died and I found myself with a Libreelec box that just runs anything I throw at it without complaining.
the search for a remote half as good as a siri remote has begun.
love LibreELEC, it is cool to be able to spin up dockers right next to it
Infuse is amazing and doesn’t even need plex/jellyfin, it can stream via smb or webdav
the short answer:
i have been down this road. recently. get an nvidia shield, use the kodi app, and use the PM4K Plex app in kodi.
the medium answer:
if you dont mind the complete lack of HDMI-CEC, poor support for remotes, horrible interfaces that either dont fully support a remote or require a keyboard to fullscreen, then a custom machine will be fine. but if you have even a modicum of respect for your own time and comfort, get an Nvidia Shield. use pm4k plex, jellyfin, and sunshine/moonlight for pc gaming.
the long answer:
HDMI-CEC is barely supported on custom machines. there are a few adapters that work on Arch Linux via DisplayPort-to-HDMI tunneling, if you jump through 15 hoops of varying size and shape. If you use LibreELEC, or Kodi, there is one(1) adapter that works by piggy-backing off the HDMI cable and splits out a USB device that can be configured in Kodi (and kodi alone), so its an option if you have a short HDMI cable (the piggy-backing adds additional complications that might not work with 4K or high-bitrate content). neither option fully supports the TV turning the device off. its one-way only.
remotes for PC all suck. they all work via shitty wireless connections that sap battery and the remotes dont last long on a charge. they quickly go to sleep so you have to press buttons to wake them, their air mouse support is dogshit at best and barely useable at worst, and their backlight support is inconsistent. some remotes will have a keyboard, but most miss some important part; the TAB key (for alt-tabbing out of apps), the Fn row (for full-screening things like the Jellyfin WebUI), or the Super key (for accessing the start menu, et al.) using an xbox controller would work, except the d-pad for navigation is on the opposite side from the A/B buttons for accept/back, so you need two hands to use it. you can get a keyboard add-on for them at least, so there is that i guess.
if you use a PC, do not use one with an nvidia graphics card if you want to use linux. people say support is better, but they are wrong. steam big picture doesnt work at 4k on nvidia hardware on linux.
do NOT use the official plex app on an Nvidia Shield. the re-write of the app a few years ago moved it all to React, and this has resulted in many awful re-renders of the UI that completely break user flow. use the PM4K Plex app via kodi. runs better, has spoiler features, doesnt glitch out, has better support for 4K content, actually plays videos every time. you will probably need both Plex and Jellyfin. plex on the shield (via the official app) wont play 4k content sometimes (will infinite-load on a black screen), and jellyfin cant handle some subtitles (will complain it cant display them). having both gives you the fallback for these situations. i have yet to run into a situation where neither can play a video, but i have run into many where one cant.
the sad state of the world is unofficial tv-watching/HTPC devices are not there yet (no kde plasma big picture, etc. no HDMI-CEC support, poor d-pad navigation, nvidia steam big picture 4k no worky, etc), and the Nvidia Shield, while great, is still woefully under-powered for today’s webapp world (see aforementioned Plex React UI woes).
the sunshine/moonlight apps are surprisingly fast over ethernet, and all the perceivable delay i found with it can be traced entirely to the display i was using. i dont think i could notice any additional delay between ethernet and direct hdmi connection to the pc.
For straight Plex stuff I use an AppleTV since I actually own and encode all my own media from disc for my server. So the formats are all the same and optimized for that device. No transcoding required(not even for subtitles).
This is use case specific… I wanted something that would play 4K disc rips without losing anything. So I picked up a AM6B+ streaming box. Flashed coreElec and loaded the Dolby vision stuff in and use Kodi. That allows me to play 4K disc rips straight from the folder with all features (Dolby Vision profile 7 full enhancement layer) and all audio formats (Atmos/DTS:X, etc). I control it with a K400 Plus wireless keyboard. Since this is still Kodi you can load a Plex plugin and pull content from there no problem.
More setup Info(sorry Reddit link).
Kodi recognizes my DV display and the receiver is picking up Atmos no problems.
You’re asking for the client side of things, yes? You’ve got a server elsewhere?
Are you stuck on the nuc or would other hardware work?
What kind of media? Music/video? 1080 or 4k? Raw rips or compressed files?
I have had several firetvs which I really can’t recommend anymore. I don’t mind roku with jellyfin client and an adblocker like pihole except the garbage “daily trivia” options that pop up on the sidebar that you have to hide once a week is annoying. Currently use an Nvidia shield with a custom launcher isn’t a terrible experience, except for the fact that I have to reboot it all the time because it’s glitchy as shit and it was overpriced.
I’m tempted to next try the NUC with that fancy KDE big picture mode I saw get a facelift recently.
Oh, and tried one of those virus ridden chineese android boxes. Also do not recommend.
I think I didn’t get exactly what you want. Ant it keeps me wondering that perhaps there are a few concepts not so clear.
Do you want to receive streaming from a server? do you want to setup the server? Or something completely else?
If you want to receive the streaming from a server, the most compatible cost-effective solution is the Amazon fire. Works with remotes and you will be able to play every media you have because the server will transcode the file on the fly if the fire stick doesn’t support the format.
If you want something more open to tinker or to get more functionality then a raspberry pi will be enough, because once again, the heavy lifting is done by the servers (via plex server or moonlight server).
More powerful boxes exists but then you need to start thinking carefully what is your use case for not eating money.
Radeon 6800H nuc were on sale for 350$ or so.
N100 are like 150$.
kodi.
kodi kodi kodi.
kodi on everything, headless kodi, kodi on phone, on linux computer, LibreELEC on an old chromebook,
addons for other streaming services, for immich, for subsonic music, jellyfin and emby.
so much more also.
customize the gui to your hearts extent, or just fall in love with every piece of media in your ecosystem easily visible in a unified interface that works with remotes, game controllers, air mouse. keyboard. App on phone, web interface from another machine
once you get the first one perfected, back it up and immediately have it on the next machine.
YouTube is a little bit of a bitch but there’s ways around that sometimes
Just tried out Kodi on Android but I’m sorry, the app sucks. No native addon browsing, the keyboard is custom but incredibly small on my phone, navigation is weird, there’s no back button and my main buttons on the phone get hidden so I always have to manually show them again. The design is unappealing and for some reason it really wants access to my devices microphone.
Literally the worst one I’ve tried and I didn’t even get to the video player, which everyone says stops working every once in a while.
well it’s really developed to be a 10ft interface, so yeah the touch controls aren’t ideal. handles just the same as it does on TV, on a phone with a remote or game controller though?
i just use the individual streaming apps on the phone if it’s in my hands.
the OP asked for a device recommendation, My point was that it can be any device that runs the same program that works easily from the TV.
all these windows 10 PC’s going in the dumpster soon could be given a new life with LibreELEC.
but i am curious though, are there other single apps on phone that work better with local media and streaming services?
I know on Android jellyfin in particular has a native app but also findroid, which is not world changing but good enough.
Is there play state sync now betqeen Clients?
with a jellyfin/emby addon heck yeah!!
also they could all be set up to to use the same DB
